Born of Fury Read online

  Praise for Sherrilyn Kenyon:

  'A publishing phenomenon... [Sherrilyn Kenyon] is the reigning queen of the wildly successful paranormal scene'

  Publishers Weekly

  'Kenyon's writing is brisk, ironic and relentlessly imaginative. These are not your mother's vampire novels'

  Boston Globe

  'Whether writing as Sherrilyn Kenyon or Kinley MacGregor, this author delivers great romantic fantasy!'

  New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Lowell

  Since 2004, internationally bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon has placed over sixty-five novels on the New York Times bestseller list; in the past three years alone, she has claimed the No.1 spot seventeen times. This extraordinary bestseller continues to top every genre she writes within.

  Proclaimed the pre-eminent voice in paranormal fiction by critics, Kenyon has helped pioneer - and define - the current paranormal trend that has captivated the world and continues to blaze new trails that blur traditional genre lines.

  With more than 25 million copies of her books in print in over 100 countries, her current series include: The DarkHunters, League, Lords of Avalon, Chronicles of Nick and Belador Code.

  Visit Sherrilyn Kenyon online:

  www.darkhunter.com

  www.sherrilynkenyon.co.uk

  www.facebook.com/AuthorSherrilynKenyon

  www.twitter.com/KenyonSherrilyn

  Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter World Series: (in reading order)

  Fantasy Lover Night Pleasures Night Embrace Dance with the Devil Kiss of the Night Night Play Seize the Night Sins of the Night Unleash the Night Dark Side of the Moon The Dream-Hunter Devil May Cry Upon the Midnight Clear Dream Chaser Acheron

  One Silent Night Dream Warrior Bad Moon Rising No Mercy

  Retribution The Guardian Time Untime Styxx

  The Dark-Hunter Companion

  Dark Bites

  Also by Sherrilyn Kenyon:

  League Series

  Born of Night Born of Fire Born of Ice Born of Shadows Born of Silence Born of Fury

  The Belador Code

  Blood Trinity Alterant

  The Curse

  Rise of the Gryphon

  Chronicles of Nick

  Infinity

  Invincible Infamous

  Inferno

  Illusion

  By Sherrilyn Kenyon writing as Kinley MacGregor:

  Lords of Avalon Series

  Sword of Darkness Knight of Darkness

  COPYRIGHT

  Published by Piatkus

  978-0-7481-2433-6

  All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Copyright (c) 2014 by Sherrilyn Kenyon

  The moral right of the author has been asserted.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

  PIATKUS

  Little, Brown Book Group

  100 Victoria Embankment

  London, EC4Y 0DY

  www.littlebrown.co.uk

  www.hachette.co.uk

  Born of Fury

  Table of Contents

  Praise for Sherrilyn Kenyon:

  About the Author

  Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter World Series: (in reading order)

  COPYRIGHT

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Epilogue

  To my family and friends who put up with my flighty ways while I live in other worlds. And especially my husband and sons, who help search for everything I misplace while writing. To my editor for her endless patience and willingness to never say, "It's too long, Sherri, cut it in half!" To everyone at SMP for their wonderful support and all the hard work they do on all our behalves (and especially you, Alex and John, for keeping up with everything).

  And last, but never least, to you, the reader, for all the wonderful notes you send and smiles you give. I know there was a little wait for the next League book. Thanks for your patience, understanding, and support. You guys rock!!

  PROLOGUE

  K

  ill or be killed.

  That was the single law of a League assassin, and it was the reminder that had been branded onto Sumi Antaxas's arm when the devil had taken her soul in exchange for the life of the only family she had left. The only family that had ever really mattered to her.

  Now...

  As good as I am, I'm going to be slaughtered with extreme and utter prejudice. She had no doubt as she watched the video playback of the attack on a League prison from a few months ago. An attack led by the Caronese emperor and a joint Sentella-Tavali strike force.

  Sumi suppressed a low, appreciative whistle as she watched them battling against an overwhelming League force. Heroic was one thing. Moronic was quite another. And in a move that was as brazen as it was stupid, Emperor Darling Cruel had led a group of rebels in to free his captured people - that included his wife - from League custody.

  Then, right as he would have escaped clean-free, in a fit of rage, he'd revealed his identity to the prime commander of The League. Not only that Darling was the Caronese emperor making this strike, but that he was also a founding member of the High Command of The Sentella - the one organization that truly threatened the reign and control of The League on the planets that made up their universe.

  And it didn't help that The League's prime commander, Kyr Zemin, had a personal grudge against the emperor from years ago. That only fueled the war that was now being fought between The League and The Sentella. A war that was quickly forcing all known governments to take sides.

  "Right there! That's the bastard!"

  She forced herself not to cringe as Prime Commander Zemin pointed to the monitor in front of her and froze the scene of two men blowing the door on the prison.

  Well over six feet in height, Commander Zemin had the same intensity as a homicidal psych patient. His right eye was covered with a black leather patch that didn't conceal the scars of the wound that had taken it. Rumors claimed that eye had been lost in a furious fight with the legendary League assassin Nemesis - a man who was one of Emperor Cruel's best friends, and one of the men who'd been in on that prison attack.

  The identity of Nemesis was also known for a fact, since he'd ripped his helmet off during that historic raid, and had publicly backed the Caronese emperor in this insane war. But like Darling, Nemesis came with his own army and was completely untouchable.

  The rest of their friends were not so fortunate.

  She glanced u p at the commander, who was so angry as he watched the playback that it was a miracle steam really didn't roll out of his ears.

  Or his nose, for that matter.

  Cursing, he paced the room around her, making her even more nervous that he might use her as a scapegoat for the men he couldn't touch. He wore his brown hair long and braided down his back - a holdover from the days when he'd been one of the top League assassins, before he'd executed his predecessor and had claimed his place as head badass.

  Kyr narrowed his left, silvery blue eye on her. "Pay attention and note the taller of the two men."

  It was hard not to notice the ferocious warrior he spoke of. He dwarfed the man he was with by a good eight inches. For that matter, he towered over everyone except Nemesis, who was only two to three inches shorter. But Nemesis was only about half the man's muscle mass.

  She sucked her breath in sharply. That warrior was the biggest man Sumi had ever laid eyes on.

  It was terrifying, really. Especially the way he expertly cut through the highly trained League soldiers as if they were mannequins. There was a brutal grace to the way he fought. He showed no hesitation or mercy as he literally plowed his way through her compadres and freed the Caronese political prisoners. The warrior didn't even flinch when he was shot or stabbed. The wounds only made him fight harder. More determined.

  Deadlier.

  Damn.

  A furious tic worked in Commander Zemin's jaw as he watched over her shoulder. "I know that hulking monster is Dancer Hauk. I know it. I can tell by the way the mutant bastard moves. There aren't that many beings of his size. Period. Not even among Andarions. And no one else that faggot emperor would trust at his back. Not like that."

  But the commander had no real proof. Only his gut feeling and the obvious, condemning size of the Andarion male.

  He glared at her. "I want you to bring me the evidence I need to convict Hauk and issue the warrant for his execution. If I can't have Cruel's head, I want that of his best friend and main protector. Understood?"

  Evidence that would have to be beyond contestation. Dancer Hauk was the last of a very long and prestigious line of military heroes. A line the Andarion people would die to protect from extinction. In fact, it'd been his direct ancestor who had founded The League centuries ago and served as its first prime commander. Hauk's family had literally written the military laws that governed all of them.

  And while the Andarion warrior had a kill bounty on his head from many governments, none were from The League directly. Rather, The League wanted him captured for questioning, or - more along Kyr's style - torturing, so that Hauk could indict every member of The Sentella High Command. Until they had a full confession and hard factual evidence directly from Hauk himself, The League didn't dare issue a kill bounty on a member of a family the Andarion people viewed as a national treasure.

  That would be suicide. In fact, they'd be better off assassinating the entire Andarion royal family than giving a paper cut to a great War Hauk.

  The only way for The League to legally execute Dancer Hauk was if they could get his birth mother to disown him first. And for that to happen, Commander Zemin would have to prove to Hauk's mother that her son had committed treason against his Andarion heritage or acted cowardly in battle.

  She glanced back at his unprecedented fighting prowess.

  Um, yeah...

  In short, given his intrepid nature in a fight, an act of God.

  And all because Zemin couldn't reach the emperor directly, so he was going after those closest to him. What a callous bastard.

  Biting her lip, she glanced up at the commander and forced herself to speak. "Excellency? May I have permission to ask a question?"

  He sneered at her. "If you must."

  She took a deep breath and braced herself for what might be a bad reaction from him. "Why me?"

  "You're one of the best I have, agent. I've never sent you after a target you didn't take down immediately and effectively." His euphemism for as bloody as possible to make her COs happy.

  His gaze darkening, he leaned over to pin her between him and the desk where she sat. "And because you look enough like your sister that it should rattle that freakish bastard into making a mistake."

  Or, much more likely, get her killed for a relationship she couldn't help. Andarions weren't exactly known for their compassion or forgiveness. One of the fiercest warring cultures in the Nine Worlds, they lived for violence and bloodshed.

  Especially human blood. For centuries, the Andarions had viewed humanity as cattle and food. A delicacy meat.

  Most still did.

  The commander grabbed her jaw in a fierce grip and forced her to meet his insane gaze. "You want your daughter spared, agent? This is the price of it. Deliver Dancer Hauk to me and I will see to it that she's removed from League training and given to a real family to raise... Betray me or fail and I will have her head delivered to you and mounted to your cell wall."

  CHAPTER 1

  "C

  'mon, Darling. You can't do this to me. I'm desperate for you, man. You've got to give it to me. Right here. Right now. I need you like I've never needed you before."

  In the hallway of the Caronese Winter Palace, Maris froze as he heard the deeply masculine, pleading Andarion accent through the door speaking with his male best friend.

  No...

  There was no way the two of them were talking about what it sounded like. Unlike him, they were both straight. He knew that for a fact, and yet, as they continued arguing, it definitely sounded like two lovers squabbling.

  Completely confounded, Maris met Nykyrian's stunned expression as the royal prince caught up to him in the hallway outside Darling's office. Tall, blond, and lethal, Nykyrian - or Nemesis, as he was better known - was a former League assassin who had an intensity that let you know in an instant he saw you first as a target and then, only if you were lucky, a sentient creature he might not want to kill.

  Being half Andarion, Nykyrian's hearing was even more astute than Maris's. Not that anyone needed supersonic hearing to miss this exchange. Their decibel level carried quite plainly through the heavy door of the emperor's office.

  And how Darling's two imperial guards remained stone-faced while it went on was a testament to their training.

  "Hell. No. Hauk," Darling snapped, enunciating each word with rage. "As much as I love and owe you, I'm not doing that for you. Ever. Forget it... And even if we did, you couldn't handle it. Besides, you've never wanted it before. Not like this, and definitely not from me."

  Maris's jaw dropped in synchronicity with Nykyrian's.

  "Ah, come on, Darling." Hauk continued to plead in a tender, needful tone Maris had never heard him use before. "After everything I've done over the years to protect your sorry ass, I can't believe you won't share it with me. Don't be like this. This isn't a want. It's a need. A major one. If you really loved me, you'd do this for me without question. Now give it to me! Please!"

  "No! Not if we were the last two beings in the universe. Not even if you were down on your knees in front of me, buck naked and begging me for it."

  His expression horrified, Nykyrian opened the door to show Darling and Hauk standing on opposite sides of Darling's desk, glaring at each other as if they were about to come to blows.

  With his short red hair brushed back from his face and his royal harone hanging to his left shoulder, Darling was dressed in dark blue and maroon emperor robes while Hauk was swathed in a red-tinged black blast-resistant Sentella battlesuit that hugged every inch of his huge, well-muscled body. His black hair fell to his shoulders in small, extremely attractive braids that were common for the warriors on his home planet to designate them as the fiercest of their breed. The stark darkness of his warrior's uniform made his skin glow a rich tawny-caramel that would make anyone's mouth water for a taste.

  Obviously annoyed, Hauk turned toward them and pinned them with his red-and-white Andarion eyes.

  Even though Nykyrian shared man y Andarion traits with Hauk, such as fangs, sensitive hearing, and extreme height, he had green human eyes. Ones that showed no fear as he locked gazes with Hauk. "Thank the gods you're both still dressed and not entwined naked on the floor... Now tell me, what exactly are we interrupting?"

  Hauk scowled at the comment and question as if replaying their exchange in his head while Darling burst into laughter.

  "Damn, Nyk... my wife's not that pregnant." Darling's tone was filled with utter indignation.

  Maris scoffed. "Oh please, honey. Zarya's so pregnant, one good sneeze could launch your son into this world in a matter of seconds."

  Darling gave him a droll stare, but he knew it was true. Due any minute now, the poor girl was almost as huge as a shuttle craft.